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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Angry Birds -- Ornaments!

Today's Dollar Store Craft is just KILLING me!! With a small amount of paint and a few scraps of felt, you can transform plain ball ornaments into a FANTASTIC group of Angry Birds!

I got my supplies at the dollar store. I searched out the entire store for some PLASTIC ornaments, knowing full well that these birds and pigs would not be staying on the tree. :o) This year, the only plastic ornaments to be found were strung on a garland. You can get a garland with all red ornaments, but I chose this one so I could get a couple green ornaments -- for pigs, of course!

The dollar store acrylic paints will do the job, with some patience. I admit, though -- the white and yellow require numerous coats in order to get the coverage you need. I finally gave up and bought some "real" acrylic craft paints in white and orange at the craft store for about $1 apiece. The green and black from the dollar store acrylics worked just fine, though!

Let's start with one small bit of information: I am NOT a craft painter! Feel free to mock my craft painting skillz! :o)

STEP ONE: You will paint your birds in three steps -- first white, then orange, then black. Allow the paint to dry between colors.

You will do the same for the pigs.

(Side note: Look how perfect the top of the ornament would be for a king pig -- just pop it off and turn it upside down!)

STEP TWO: Cut scraps of felt, as shown, to create their hats. Don't stress about this -- just wing it! You don't need a pattern!

STEP THREE: Do a quick running stitch to attach the white trim. (I used red thread so you can see my stitches.) Tie a knot, but don't cut your thread yet.

STEP FOUR: Whipstitch the sides of the hat together. It doesn't have to be pretty -- these stitches will be (mostly) hidden. Knot and clip your thread.

STEP FIVE: Take a running stitch all the way around your small circle. You will then place a small scrap of felt in the center and pull the stitches tight, creating a little ball.**If you have small pompoms on hand, use them instead!**

STEP SIX: Attach the ball to the end of the hat and knot and clip your thread. Then fold the end of the hat down. Take a few stitches to hold the fold in place, as shown.

STEP SEVEN: Loop an ornament hanger through the top of your ornament.

Thread the hat onto the ornament hook, poking the wire through the top of the hat, and curve the wire. You're ready to hang your cute Angry Bird on your tree!

The garland ornaments don't have a hole in the top, so you just have to remove the top and hook an ornament hanger underneath, twisting it together at the top. Then pop it back on your ornament and place the hat on.

Hee hee! They're so crabby! :o)

Won't they be perfect for a desktop tree at the office?You can make all your co-workers so jealous!

My pigs and birds stayed on the tree for about .5 seconds after I took photos... and now they are off having adventures with my kids. :o) Good thing I sought out the plastic ornaments!!

This is the best Christmas tutorial I've seen this year! haha... I love it. You've made it so easy that I am going to actually do this with my kiddos. Thank you! (Oh, and I on my friend's facebook and posted it on mine too!)

Just brilliant. Made these myself thanks so much for the tutorial. I added the black angry bird and the white one. Had to go through a lot of trouble to find plastic baubles (sadly no dollar stores here ;-) ) so I ended up painting baubles that were covered with glitter as well, amazingly they came out the best :-) oh well they all came out "best".

I think that is awesome, my kids are going to love this. I am a fan of angry birds, I have pretty much all mobile apps from them and I love this game. It is the first time that something like this happens to me.

I am in the process of making these right now. I used glass bulbs and they worked great but the red paint kept coming through so my husband is a painter and he gave me wall paint to use instead and that worked great! I wish that we could post pics of our crafts from your ideas! Thanks for the great craft!